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How can I get my daughter to understand math? She usually misses it by one digit either she counts to fast or too slow....I am trying to be patient.

Just got home from school and was going through my dd backpack she is 6 yrs. old and noticed her teacher wrote on her math test "Unsatisfactory" she basically missed all of them :(
We practice and here I thought she was doing fine but I guess not...Do you think she might need a one on one person to be with her I hope not how is she suppose to get it on her own? What do you do ladies?
I just sent her to her room to do some of the problems she missed she got upset and I threaten to spank her she left crying but that is the only way I can get her to get up...:(

For now, one on one is a good idea. Go over the questions and have her answer them so you can see what she's doing wrong and try to correct her. Just leaving her on her own could merely perpetuate the errors and lead her to develop a hatred of math. She can't figure out the mistakes without some help.

Six is pretty early so make it fun and simple. Practice with some skittles or M&M's, french fries, raisins, barbie shoes, your shoes, clothes pins, pennies, pepperoni pizza. Buy her a fun game on the computer. Sidewalk chalk outside.

YES! Giggles is right. She needs solid objects she can learn with. Pieces of candy work really well. Then after you work on the math, she gets to have a certain number of the candies. Dried fruit if you are watching the sugar.

Montessori teaches math using solid objects. There are single units (the ones) then sticks of 10 (a string of 10 single units) then the tens are arranged in a square to make 100 ( 10 strings of 10 single units). It is a fabulous way for kids to see and touch and move numbers around. You can make your own with popcorn and a sewing needle.

Practice grouping items in 2s 3s 4s 5s. Show her how subtraction works if you eat a certain number of candies or apple slices. Most children learn by doing. Female and male brains process information differently bc of our white matter/ gray matter differences. Many girls need solid objects in math and models in science.

You say you are being patient, but you threatened to spank her for not doing her math work. You should be sitting down with her and helping her, not reprimanding her. She is not getting it wrong on purpose, obviously she needs a little extra help! Sit down with her and watch how she does math and see where she is making mistakes and go from there.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 9:53 PM on Feb. 5, 2010

What exactly is she working on. Maybe I can give you some tips on what you can do. I taught K and 1st for a few years. Is it a particular concept or skills?

Get her some serious math tutoring. I struggled with it terribly in school and never really had much in the way of proffessional help....so needless to say I am still struggling till this day. She might have an actually learning disability in math. Unless you pursue this, she might never get ahead!